Girl (9) accidentally kills gun instructor

Shooting instructor Charles Vacca stands next to a
9-year-old girl at the Last Stop shooting range in White
Hills, Arizona in this still image taken from video.
REUTERS/Mohave County Sheriff's Office

An instructor at a shooting range in Arizona has died
after a 9-year-old girl accidentally shot him in the head with
an Uzi he was showing her how to use, the Mohave County
Sheriff's Office says.

Charles Vacca, 39, was shot on Monday morning (local time),
then airlifted to a medical centre in Las Vegas and
pronounced dead shortly before 9 p.m., the sheriff's office
said.

Vacca was working at the Bullets and Burgers outdoor range in
White Hills, about 100km southeast of Las Vegas, when the
accident occurred. The girl and her parents were at the range
while on vacation, a sheriff's spokeswoman told the Los
Angeles Times.

He was standing next to the girl, instructing her how to use
the Uzi, when she pulled the gun's trigger and the recoil
sent the weapon over her head, causing him to be shot, the
sheriff's office said.

"This is a rarity for something like this to happen," the
spokeswoman said.